Examples known as an arranging and feeding device that transports tablets or the like having the same shape while arranging the tablets or the like in a line (see, for example, PTL 1) include a device that includes a turn table, which rotates at a constant speed, and a static external wall disposed along the outer periphery of the turn table. This device also includes a static flow-directing guide and a dispensing portion. The flow-directing guide guides, radially outward, objects that have been carried on the upper surface of the turn table and that have come into contact with the flow-directing guide. The dispensing portion is formed so as to extend through the external wall and guides the objects that have been carried on the upper surface of the turn table along the external wall outward from the surface of the turn table. This device also includes width restricting means and a height restricting member. The width restricting means restricts the width of the dispensed products using a gap between opposing inner and outer members included in the dispensing portion. The height restricting member is disposed in front of the dispensing portion and restricts the height of the dispensed product. The turn table has a flat disc shape.
In order to be capable of holding more objects than in the case of using this flat disc-shaped turn table, a device has been developed that includes a rotator whose central portion is recessed downward into a bowl shape or inverted conical shape and whose upper peripheral portion is formed into a flange shape (see, for example, PTL 2). This is a device including a so-called flanged rotational container. The following two types of device are known as rotary parts feeders including this flanged rotational container:
a device including a static flow-directing guide whose shape has been changed from a shape corresponding to the flat upper surface of the turn table into such a shape as to be adapted to the curved inner surface of the recessed portion of the flanged rotational container; and
a device including another rotator instead of the static flow-directing guide, the rotator being held in a horizontal flanged rotational container in an inclined manner.
Known as a drug feeder is a device that includes a driving unit, disposed so as to be fixed to a drawer rack of a drug packaging machine or other places for power supply or control, and a drug cassette, attachable to and detachable from the driving unit for easy drug replenishment or for other purposes. This device holds a large number of drugs in random positions in the drug cassette and discharges the drugs one by one from the drug cassette by intermittently or continuously driving the driving unit as appropriate (see, for example, PTL 3). This drug cassette includes a container unit, which can hold a large number of solid drugs, and an arrangement disc disposed in the container unit so as to be axially rotatable. This drug cassette also includes a large number of vane-shaped partition walls, which are disposed on the outer peripheral surface of the arrangement disk and which partition an annular gap between the container unit and the arrangement disk into a large number of compartments at a regular pitch, and a partition board, which is disposed so as to face an dispensing portion formed at a portion of the bottom portion of the container unit to partition part of the annular gap, the portion of the bottom portion functioning as an undersurface of the annular gap. This drug cassette causes the drugs in the compartments to fall one by one from the dispensing port as a result of axial rotation of the arrangement disk caused by rotation driving of the driving unit.
Such existing drug feeders are categorized as follows and the drug feeders in different categories differ from one another in terms of properties such as drug capacity, provided that the drug feeders in the respective categories have the same size:
a so-called disc rotation type including a turn table having a flat upper surface employed as a rotator (see, for example, PTL 1);
a so-called flange rotation type including a flanged rotational container employed as a rotator (see, for example, PTL 2); and
a so-called arrangement disk rotation type including an arrangement disk having partition walls disposed at the outer periphery, the disk being employed as a rotator (see, for example, PTL 3).
Specifically, the disk rotation type drug feeder has the smallest drug capacity, the arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder has the largest drug capacity, and the flange rotation type drug feeder has intermediate drug capacity. A drug feeder having a large capacity has usability when operated so as to be replenished with drugs while being inactive and not replenished with drugs during successive discharge. A drug feeder having a small capacity, on the other hand, has usability when operated so as to be fed drugs as needed.
In view of the above-described difference in capacity or other properties, the arrangement disk rotation type drug feeders have been frequently used for drug packaging machines or other machines in which individual feeding of drugs to each feeder as needed is difficult. The reason why feeding of drugs to each feeder as needed is difficult in these machines is because a drug packaging machine or another machine includes a large number of drug feeders in its storage for handling of many types of drugs.
After an arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder is produced, changing or adjusting the shape or pitch of the partition walls on the outer periphery of the arrangement disk is difficult. Moreover, the arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder is required to be adapted to the outer shape of drugs as much as possible. Thus, in the arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder, different arrangement disks are respectively designed for different types of drug. In addition, a number of arrangement disk rotation type drug feeders are often produced exclusively for each drug, the number being the sum of a number required for being equipped with a drug packaging machine or the like and a number of preliminary feeders.
As described above, an arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder tends to be designed for a specific drug, the range of shapes of drugs handleable by the same drug feeder is narrow, and it frequently takes time for design or produce of a drug feeder prior to use. Thus, a drug packaging machine or another machine including arrangement disk rotation type drug feeder has to leave successive delivery of less frequently used drugs or new drugs having different properties such as sizes, to a manual drug distributing device equipped with the packaging machine in advance or disposed on the outside. In other words, even when the machine includes arrangement disk rotation type drug feeders are installed in a packaging machine, less frequently used drugs or new drugs having different properties such as sizes are handled so as to be manually distributed without using the arrangement disk rotation type drug feeders.